John Robinson faced off against Ray Townsend – both he and Paul Gray broke away from Wigston and formed their own club – sound familiar? After a cagey opening, John was in a very assertive position and I am becoming rapidly aware of John’s positional capability. One of John’s Knights had manoeuvred itself to e5 on a tremendous outpost and he re-routed the other Knight to f3 to back it up. Furthermore, he also doubled his Rooks on the aforementioned e file and was in a totally dominant position, winning a pawn, followed by a 2nd, followed by a 3rd and a totally won position. John gave a pawn back to trade off material but John being two pawns up was enough for his opponent to resign.

Board 2 saw our very own Julian who confirmed his availability 3 hours before the game via the WhatsApp group. It was Julian himself who suggested the group so we are grateful to him for that as it is a great idea. He was playing against Nigel Wollen – himself carrying an estimated grade of 1650.

On to the game and Julian played his favourite Caro-Kann defence as black against 1. e4. Julian’s opponent chose the exchange variation and Julian’s strategy was to push his Kingside pawns and castle Queenside. Julian had an excellent position with a dark squared Bishop pointing towards his opponent’s casted King, as well as a pawn storm threatening to blow the position open. He positioned the Rooks on the g and h files, also pointing towards white’s King and once Julian forced the breakthrough, a resignation soon followed with a heavy loss of material inevitable.

On board 3 was Mick Sandham – one of our players that has been with the club since the start, facing off against John Walker.

With white, he played 1. e4 and faced the Philidors’ Defence. I was a little unsure what happened after this but during the middle game, Mick had castled Queenside and had some activity. John’s position looked passive but after opening the a file, John had gained some activity back. Pieces were exchanged and Mick looked in an OK position. This soon changed around quickly because after some more material was exchanged, the move order selected by Mick was slightly inaccurate and let to a slightly worse position for him (for a patzer like me looking on). John subsequently employed his apple crunching gambit (popping out an apple to crunch on during a critical period) but then Mick (to his credit) touched his King with a Bishop hanging to a Knight, realised this but moved his King as he had touched the piece. Thereafter the Rooks came off and Mick didn’t take long to resign after. As it turned out, this was the one loss of the night.

Matt on board 4 was facing Jim Kellock, who had previously beaten Rudy in the home match.

Matt, in his usual style, took a longish time to think and assess the position whilst carefully gaining space on the Queenside. Jim played fairly passively it seemed and let Matt do what he wanted, which in true ‘filler’ style, he capitalised on. Matt launched a Kingside attack with a Knight, Rook and Queen on an open g file and Jim’s game collapsed into an inevitable material loss and subsequent resignation.

Finally, (only because he is on board 5) we come to Hal. Hal was facing Edda Walker (Mick’s opponent’s wife) who is trying to improve her trade having played for a few years.

Hal enjoyed an excellent game with a lead in material, in development and won a Queen for a Rook, a couple of pawns and Edda threw in the towel after a nice combination from Hal, using the pin of a Queen to fork a King check and a Rook, winning more material.

Hal felt bad after the game having won within 45-50 minutes and I empathise with that but you are there to win a board for the team Hal and you did it – that’s all we can ask.

Overall an excellent 4-1 win and dare we say that ‘Our promotion charge continues……….’